Have you ever tracked your calories as best you could and determined that you are running a clear deficit of 3,500 calories per week -- enough for a 1-pound loss -- and yet still you see no weight loss?

One of the most important things you can do for yourself and your body is to get enough sleep. An enormous amount of sleep research conducted during the past 20 years has shed much light on its importance to our health.

The holidays are right around the corner. It just doesn't seem fair, does it? You work so hard all year to meet last year's weight-loss resolution only to have it all get messed up in the last quarter of the year.

Have you ever considered what you eat after you work out? When I say "work out," I mean exercise in general. Depending on your fitness level, a workout can be considered anything from a few circuits around Kahala Mall in the morning or a heavy set at the gym.

Setting a goal is one of the most effective steps you can take toward achieving what you want. However, the common mistake people make in setting goals is that they are not always congruent with a person's lifestyle or values.

There is a common myth that a workout isn't effective unless you feel sore the next day. Depending on your goal and athletic level, an experienced fitness professional can design a program accomplishing what you want with the least amount of soreness and pain possible through "stacking" exercises that complement each other.

Sugar and its impact on our health is often misunderstood or misrepresented. There are two main types of sugar we use for energy: glucose and fructose, the latter having potentially more harmful effects in a person's fat-loss goals.

Ask 10 different experts in the fitness field about eating breakfast before a workout and you'll get 10 different answers. The confusion results from information overload and misinterpretation of research findings.

Turn on the television and scroll through the channels, and eventually you will come across an infomercial replete with sweaty people moving vigorously and posing with an oversize pair of pants they used to fit.

Studies abound indicating physical exercise is essential in maintaining optimum brain health. The brain requires an enormous amount of total body resources to maintain its functions. In fact, even though the brain is roughly 2 percent of total body weight, it uses 25 percent of total body glucose. In other words, for every 1,000 calories of fuel our body takes in, 250 of those calories go to the brain.

Take this familiar scenario: You are walking casually to the bus stop and then realize the bus is pulling up and you are still quite a length behind. The bus begins to pull away from the curb, and you still have 100 yards to go. In a split second, you turn on the juice and dash toward the bus. Your arms are pumping, your legs are striding and your lungs are blowing like a blacksmith's bellows.

What does weight loss really mean to you? Say you want to lose 15 pounds. Have you ever given serious thought as to why? Does the 15 pounds off mean you would be able to wear that dress you purposely bought smaller for your cousin's wedding? What about after?

To lose one pound in one week, a person has to get rid of 3,500 kilocalories. To do this, you can burn 500 calories a day, cut out 500 calories a day or find a combination of both. As simple as this sounds, there are many factors contributing to the ease or difficulty of losing or gaining weight.

Driving Miss Annie
As president of Hawaii Auto Dealers Association, Aloha Kia owner Bill Van Den Hurk and his faithful companion annie are looking forward to seeing you at the 2015 First Hawaiian International Auto Show next weekend Read More »